Stéphane Trano

Stéphane Trano (born February 1, 1969, in France) is a French journalist and author based in New York City, United States. He graduated in History from Columbia University, New York. His collaborations include L'Express, Le Point and Marianne.

Stéphane Trano

Biographer

Trano has authored three biographical essays:

• In 2000, on François Mitterrand, Mitterrand, Les Amis D’abord Trano explored the former French president's personal networks in-depth. The French historian Jean Lacouture prefaced the book: "François Mitterrand, whose public life is arranged traditionally around three or four parties, including one he roughly forged, confided in me that "in politics, everything is a matter of banding together," which could also have been said, of religion, by a general of the Jesuits in their heyday. And when he defined a friend as he in whom nothing, neither Bousquet, nor failure, nor insult, could alter public or private loyalty, he seemed to speak less as a politician or secular moralist than as an adherent of a religious order. Stephan Trano suggests, line by line, that the reason for the State has reasons other than the reason of the heart. And that loyalty, noble virtue that it is, can be, in the public order, incompatible with the general interest." Trano's biography included the first authorized conversation with Mitterrand's daughter Mazarine Pingeot (since then known as Mazarine Pingeot-Mitterrand), where she confesses about her relationship with her father.

 

• In 2006, with Une Affaire d’Amitie, Trano extended its work to Mitterrand's families. Mazarine Pingeot wrote the preface, and the former French Minister of Culture from 1981 to 1997 under Mitterrand, Jack Lang, signed the postface.
• An essay about John Fitzgerald Kennedy (November 2013, L'Archipel), "a character built by his entourage (...) Appointed by his father to fulfill his own presidential destiny (...), the first politician invented by the new dominant post-war mass media and shaped by marketing." According to the author, the legend of Kennedy was "carefully maintained by censorship and powerfully organized by his family, and then conveyed by historians. However, his diseases (...), his obsession with women, his dangerous relationships, the wandering of his political thought... (...) represent everything America usually hates: concealment, perjury, betrayal, corruption. Fifty years after his death, the best-hidden mystery of the icon of American lies not in his murder, but in a life totally concealed by myth." ^[1]

Journalist

At the age of 18, Trano's first news articles appeared in the weekly magazine Le Nouvel Observateur (The New Observer), founded in 1950 by philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre in conjunction with former members of the French Resistance. He first began as a celebrity lifestyle reporter but soon became a political journalist.

From 1991 to 1996, Trano served as Chief Political Editor of the weekly Tribune Juive (Jewish Tribune).^[2] Recognized by the French intellectual community, he reported on controversial issues of public interest for several major publications.

 

Stéphane Trano with the Dalai-Lama, 1994

In 1996, Trano became the first Jewish journalist to work under dual Middle East leadership—Palestinian National Authority and Israeli supervision—after being appointed as Co-Chief Editor of the short-lived Palestinian Economic Newsletter, a monthly publication to promote economic development in the Gaza Strip and West Bank under the Oslo Accords of 1993. With a circulation of 15,000, it was published in English, French and Arabic.^[3] Yasser Arafat wrote its first editorial when it was published in June 1996.^[4] It was published for seven months.

Political advisory

Trano has served in prominent political advisory roles, including:

• Special Advisor to Patrick Gaubert, then Head of the French governmental mission against racism and anti-Semitism (1991–1995)
• Special Advisor to the President of the NATO-affiliated organization International League against Racism and Anti-Semitism (1993)
• Special Advisor to Jean Kahn, President of the Conseil Representatif des Institutions juives de France (Council of French Jewish Institutions), (1993–1996), and President of the European Jewish Congress (1993 to 1995)

In 2005–2006, Trano was Director of Online Communications and the author for Jack Lang, President of the Arab World Institute, former NATO-based French anti-piracy expert, and French Minister of Culture and Communications from 1981 to 1995.

Trano has received attention for his contributions to public debate by questioning, in many articles:

• The future of the remembrance of the Shoah
• The issue of ethnocentrism
• The morality of the partners of the peace process in the Middle East
• Discrimination against minorities in Europe
• Anti-Americanism in France
• Endangered populations

Experts often quote his work:

• During a session of the Senate in Belgium, December 14, 2000, in a debate with Prime Minister Michiel Martens about a proposal for a resolution on the right of return for Palestinian Refugees: Proposal for resolution on the right of return for Palestinian refugees
• Regarding Holocaust monuments and national memorial cultures in France and Germany since 1989: the origins and political function of the Vel d'Hiv in Paris and the Holocaust Monument in Berlin (quoted page 97)

In 1996, Trano was one of the 234 public figures who signed a petition for the legal recognition of same-sex couples: For a legal recognition of homosexual couples

Other contributions with excerpts from columns

• In Libération:

Culture de la Mémoire, Culture du Malheur, (Culture of Memory, Culture of Woe), Tribune, April 29, 1995

Le Bon Juif Selon Le Pen, (The Good Jew According to Le Pen) - Tribune, June 16, 1995

Commémorer d'autres Génocides, (Commemorating Other Genocides), Tribune, January 26, 1995.^[5]

En finir avec la Paix des dupes, (Ending the Peace Dupes), Tribune, October 1, 1997.^[6]

Israël doit trouver les mots (Israel Must Find the Words), Tribune, November 4, 2000

• In Le Monde:

Le trouble des Juifs de France, de Jean-Michel Dumay, (The Turmoil of the Jews of France, by Jean-Michel Dumay), September 24, 1993

Citations and references about the author

Israel and Palestine

• Negotiating the non-negotiable: the Israeli-Palestinian talks in Norway, 1993 in Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, 1994. 'Humans, Information and Technology,' 1994 IEEE International Conference
• Proposal for resolution on the right of return for Palestinian refugees (Mr. Michiel Maertens et al., Doc. 2-507)

L'Oreal legal case

• Ugly Beauty: Helena Rubinstein, L'Oréal, and the Blemished History of Looking Good by Ruth Brandon (Feb 1, 2011)
• L'Oreal 1909-2009 (Editions Française) par Jacques Marseille

Politics of Memory

• Holocaust Monuments and National Memory: France and Germany since 1989 by Peter Carrier (Sep 27, 2006)
• L'Année Céline, Volume 1995, Du Lerot/IMEC (1996)
• Le joker juif: ou du "fait hébreu" comme argument polémique, Ange-Mathieu Mezzadri, Autres Temps (2002)

François Mitterrand

• Francois Mitterrand: A Political Biography (Polity Political Profiles Series) by David Scott Bell (Oct 28, 2005)
• French XX Bibliography: Critical and Bibliographical References for the Study of French Literature Since 1885, Index to Volume Is (Nos. 41-45) (French XX Bibliography Index) (Feb 1997)
• French XX Bibliography #41: Critical and Biographical References for the Study of French Literature Since 1885 by Douglas W. Alden, Peter C. Hoy and Christine M. Zunz (Sept 1989)

In English

• in The Jewish Chronicle:

When Henry Met Francoise, with Valerie Monchi, July 2, 1993.

Jewish Voters Face Thorny Dilemma, with Valerie Monchi, April 28, 1995.

The Mitterrand Years: A Decade of "Ambiguous" Middle-East Policy, with Valerie Monchi, March 26, 1993.

Mitterrand's Vichyst Past: A New Facet in a Complex History with Jews, by Valerie Monchi, September 30, 1994.

"Stupid Mistake" Leads to "Dachau" Knickers, by Stéphane Trano, October 7, 1994.

• The world of Finance tempted by boss Romney
• Trayvon Martin: The hoddie that kills
• Human rights have deteriorated under Obama
• For Obama, the carnage of Aurora has nothing to do with firearms
• Islamgate in America?
• David Cameron in full delirium against Francois Hollande's France
• Bin Laden's letters: Washington's incredible mistake against France
• And here we are again: French media blame the president
• American Spring Causes Anguis in Politicians in the US
• Facebook co-founder scandalizes the U.S Congress
• Washington no longer hiding its relief after Sarkozy's departure
• How everything shifted between Paris and Washington

Bibliography

• La Terre malade des Hommes, Paris, Avec Philippe Desbrosses, Editions du Rocher, Paris, 1992. An essay about global warming, global pollution, and alternatives to the massive exploitation of seas and lands for food purposes.ISBN 2-268-01033-3
• L'Intelligence verte, Paris, avec Philippe Desbrosses, Editions du Rocher, Paris, 1997.Second Edition.ISBN 2268023869
• Un rabbin dans la Cite, avec Gilles Bernheim, Editions Calmann-Lévy, 1997. An essay about the story of Gilles Bernheim, French philosopher and rabbi, and currently Chief Rabbi of France, elected on June 22, 2008, who was appointed a Knight [Chevalier] in the Légion d'honneur on April 10, 2009, by the French Government. ISBN 2-7021-2674-X
• Mitterrand, Les Amis d'abord [1], Paris, Editions L'Archipel, 2000. Preface by Jean Lacouture. Interview with Mazarine Pingeot-Mitterrand. A biography of former French President François Mitterrand (president from 1981 to 1988 and 1988–1995, d. on January 8, 1996), with a preface by the world-renowned French journalist, historian, and biographer, Jean Lacouture (the official biographer of General De Gaulle) and featuring the first exclusive interview with Mitterrand's long-time hidden daughter, Mazarine Pingeot. ISBN 2-7021-3316-9
• Mitterrand, Une Affaire d'Amitie [2], second edition, Editions L'Archipel, Paris, 2006. Preface by Mazarine Pingeot-Mitterrand, and conclusion by Jack Lang. [1]Second edition of the above with preface by Mazarine Pingeot and an afterword by long-time French Minister of Culture and Communication, Jack Lang. ISBN 2-84187-793-0
• Vive La Terre [3], collective book, Editions Solar, Paris, 2007, Preface by Nicolas Hulot. A collective work of nonfiction written by and edited under Stephane Trano with contributions from experts on global climate change. ISBN 2-263-04416-7
• Kennedy ou L'Invention du Mensonge [4]

Member

International Federation of Journalists
Society of Professional Journalists
National Writers Union

References

1. Trano, Stephane (November 2013). L'Invention du Mensonge. Paris: L'Archipel. ISBN 978-2809812671.
2. Les inrockuptibles: Issues 261-270; Issues 261-270 2000 Stéphane Trano. journaliste, écrivain. Ex-chef de service politique de Tribune juive, ex-rédacteur en chef de La Lettre économique palestinienne.
3. Edinger, Bernard (June 20, 1996). "Arafat aides launch a new bid for foreign investors" (Press release). Reuters World News Agency - France. Retrieved June 15, 2011.
4. "Having followed the course of this periodical, I believe it reflects all that is happening on an economic level in our country, our plans and projects with the World Bank, the donor countries, and our Israeli neighbors, anxious to attain a healthy economy in a climate of freedom and security."
5. , Even though it was just yesterday that the world ended the silence on Auschwitz, in its desperate search for words to try express what happened, already another silence covered other genocides (we discuss later on the reasons for which the following facts qualify as genocide): one who came to destroy, in three and a half years, one million, maybe two million Cambodians out of a population that numbered seven, at the hands of the Khmer Rouge, the thirty million Chinese victims of the megalomaniacal delusions of Mao, between 1958 and 1976, that of East Timor, where Indonesian military slaughtered 100,000 to 200,000 of the 700,000 inhabitants of the region, that of Biafra, between 1967 and 1970, which caused the death of a million people, one and a half million Afghans after the Soviet intervention of 1979, but in southern Sudan, Tibet, Australia (against aborigines)! Not one of these monstrosities conducted thanks to the permanent state of the surrender of international law, it could not be avoided, despite Auschwitz, this paroxysmal event of the purifying madness of men. In such a context, and with the certain announcement of new and numerous genocides to come, Nie Wieder's injunction ("Never Again") resonates like a sinister farce. Since the first scrap of the war in former Yugoslavia, the case was heard: that which the Europeans - let us leave off speaking of governments, while the anti-war protests brought together only a few hundred citizens! - had sworn to have extracted their from their soul and to no longer be able to tolerate within them, they watch today, fascinated. A fascination that conquers the world. Sigmund Freud thought that "that which can not be remembered is repeated in behavior." It seems that this, which the world fails to recall (since it does not want to, without a doubt), is precisely the link between this self-fascination and the consequences that arise therefrom. The German witnesses to the rise of Nazism in Germany explain that they only realized the progress of events when an event of marked violence (Kristallnacht, for example) shook them from their torpor. Still, disbelief remained. But there the protest stops.
6. , Sunday's Israel's approbation to resume peace talks with the Palestinian officials must not bring delusion. The apparent relaxation, which Washington claimed a success, must not conceal Madeleine Albright's useless visit to the peace process's bedside and the complete failure of a devastating system. Certainly, following Netanyahu's electoral victory in May 1996, the Israeli government faced widespread criticism for its intransigence and systematic blasting of the climate of confidence built in the previous three years. But the key to resolving the dead-end is to work faster. Albright faced a gallery of lures, landmines ready to explode under the negotiators' feet. To name a few: a weakened Palestinian administration, appalling double standards regarding terrorism undermining Israelis' confidence in a possible normalization; a Syrian dictator that the international community rarely held to account for the annexation of Lebanon; a fossilized Egyptian regime and its pathetic frozen peace with Israel since 1979; a Saudi kingdom, the sanctuary of the Jewish State's very existence, continually procrastinating since 1993; Jordan, holding its breath after its peace efforts; or, Lebanon, calling for a "comprehensive resolution" - a way to ensure nothing will change - while claiming its incapacity to disarm the pro-Iranian Hezbollah. Since September 1993, an objective consensus to trash the Oslo Accords as unified the very disunified Arab countries, coolly stashed in the shade of their despotic regimes, uncooperative, without any vision of the future, and the terrorist states, sowers of chaos. This undermining has paid off..